Whether it is Goldman Sachs’ central role in the subprime crisis, handing out hundreds of millions in bonuses soon after receiving a $10 billion taxpayer bailout, or CEO Lloyd Blankfein claiming that his company does “God’s work,” this Wall Street giant has rightfully earned the leading role in the story of “All That is Wrong with Wall Street.” Ten years ago neighborhood residents from 20 states came to Washington, DC to try and block the repeal of Glass-Steagall, the Depression era banking act that provided a firewall between commercial banks and investment firms. Led by longtime community leader, Gale Cincotta, hundreds of Americans went to the home of Phil Gramm, the champion of this deregulatory effort, to challenge the then Texas Senator to reverse course. He didn’t, and the American people have paid the price for it

WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration is challenging makers of alcohol-infused energy drinks to prove their beverages are safe, citing complaints that the products can cause risky behavior and injury. The FDA issued a letter Friday to 30 beverage manufacturers, giving them 30 days to provide evidence that the combination of caffeine and alcohol is safe.

The nation’s largest health insurance company is recruiting its employees in a grassroots lobbying campaign against health care reform, according to the group Consumer Watchdog . United Healthcare, sent an e-mail to its 75,000 employees Tuesday featuring template letters for employees to send to senators, calling on them to resist a publicly-financed health care option and instructing them to “share their unique perspectives” and write letters to their local newspapers.

NEW YORK — Two former employees for Bernard Madoff programmed an old IBM computer to generate false records that concealed the money manager’s massive Ponzi scheme and were given hush money when they threatened to stop lying, federal prosecutors said Friday. Madoff gave orders to pay the pair “whatever they wanted to keep them happy,” a criminal complaint said.

Quentin Tarantino will appear in an upcoming Softbank commercial , the company announced this week. The Japanese telecommunications giant, whose past spots have included quirky advertisements starring American actors Brad Pitt and Dante Carter, released a clip of Tarantino rehearsing for the spot.

The following is an excerpt from The 50th Law , adapted for HuffPost. When you work for others, you are at their mercy.

Nobody I know who is smart and rich (albeit much less rich than they used to be) thinks the economy is patched up and ready to roll–except, apparently, Warren Buffet (who I don’t actually know), who announced yesterday that “the financial panic is behind us.” But then he is also a man who believes the future is railroads. The view of my personal focus group of the smart and the rich is a basic one: Their own businesses continue to really suck; some 17% of the country is unemployed or under-employed in an economy built on consumer spending; every bank in the country is still hiding underwater assets which won’t rise until consumer spending does, and consumers can’t spend if they’re unemployed. And then the Dow: It’s going strong precisely because so many companies have fired so many people that their results are looking surprisingly better than expected, so, likely, they keep firing people